ProjectSummary/Abstract Thesenseoftouchisanimportantpartofthewayweinteractwitheachotherandtheworld.Despitethis importance,wedonothaveadetailedunderstandingofhowthesenseoftouchworks.Thisisproblematic whendisease,medicaltreatment,and/oragedegradestheabilitytodetecttouch.Inordertodevelop treatmentsfortouchdisorders,weneedtoimproveourknowledgeoftheunderlyingprocessesoftouch sensation.Oneofthesekeyprocessesistransmissionoftouchstimulifromthesurfaceoftheskintothe neuronsthatareactivatedbymechanicalstretching. Thegoalofthisproposalistounderstandhowthetissuesandstructuresbetweentheoutsideoftheskinand thetouchneuronsaltertheneurons?abilitytosensetouch.Toavoidthemorphologicalvariationand complexitypresentinhumansandothermammals,westudytheroundwormC?.elegans?.Thesewormshave deterministicdevelopment,andwehavemanygenetictechniquesavailabletoperformexperiments,enabling anarrayofexperimentsnotpossiblewithotheranimals. Ourcollaborativeresearcheffortbetweenengineersandbiologistshasdevelopedmicroscaleforcesensors forapplyingcontrolledforcestowormsforthepurposeofstudyingthesenseoftouch.Wehavefoundthatthe touchneuronsinwormssharesomecharacteristicswiththePaciniancorpusclesfoundinmammalianskin.In thiswork,Iwilluseourcustominstrumentstostudyhowthemechanicalpropertiesoftheworm?sskinaffect thesesharedcharacteristics.Furthermore,Iwilldeployourtoolstoimproveourunderstandingofthestructural proteinsthatareresponsiblefortransmittingmechanicalstimulitotouchneuronsintheworm. Thelongtermgoalofthisresearcheffortistoelucidatethesharedpathwaysthatenabletouchsensationin both?C.elegans?andmammals.Thisworkwillcontributetothisgoalbyshowinghowthetissuesurrounding touchneuronsalterstheforcesthatreachtheneuron.Byunderstandingeachpartoftheprocessoftouch sensationin?C.elegans?,wewillimproveourabilitytostudyandunderstandtouchsensationinmammals.